Historically, televisions were formed of discrete analog components that received over-the-air channels and processed the received signals into video and audio signals for display and output from a television. As time has passed, television tuners and receivers are moving to more semiconductor-based technologies. This is especially so in light of the recent move to digital broadcasting and high-definition content.
Signals can be received in a television in various ways, including over-the-air (or terrestrial), cable, satellite or in other manners. Different standards exist for different types of the signals. With regard to satellite television, a typical receive path includes a tuner to receive the signals from an antenna and to downconvert the signals to baseband. Such a tuner can be a single chip tuner that receives and processes the signals into analog baseband signals for output to downstream circuitry, namely another semiconductor chip, which may be a demodulator. In general, all of the signal processing done in the tuner chip is performed in the analog domain. While such a design is relatively inexpensive, the size and power consumption of the chip can be relatively significant as certain circuitry, especially filtering circuitry, can require higher order complex filters. Furthermore, due to the analog baseband chain of such tuner, various analog compensations are needed to form an output baseband signal that is appropriate for demodulation in downstream circuitry.